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Book

1“Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness, seeking יהוה: Look to the rock you were hewn from, and to the hole of the pit you were dug from.

2“Look to Aḇraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you. For he was alone when I called him, and I blessed him and increased him.

3“For יהוה shall comfort Tsiyon, He shall comfort all her waste places. For He makes her wilderness like Ěḏen, and her desert like the garden of יהוה. Joy and gladness are found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of song.

4“Listen to Me, My people, and give ear to Me, O My nation, for the Torah goes forth from Me, and My right-ruling I set as a light to peoples.

6“Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath, for the heavens shall vanish like smoke, and the earth wear out like a garment, and those who dwell in it die as gnats. But My deliverance is forever, and My righteousness is not broken.

7“Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, a people in whose heart is My Torah: do not fear the reproach of men, nor be afraid of their revilings.

8“For a moth eats them like a garment, and a worm eats them like wool; but My righteousness is forever, and My deliverance to all generations.”

9Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of יהוה! Awake as in days of old, everlasting generations. Was it not You who cut Rahaḇ apart, and pierced the Crocodile?

10Was it not You who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?

11And let the ransomed of יהוה return. And they shall come to Tsiyon with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. Let them attain joy and gladness; sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

12“I, I am He who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid of man that dies, and of the son of man who is made like grass?

13“And you have forgotten יהוה your Maker who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and you continually fear, all the day, because of the rage of the oppressor, as he has prepared to destroy. And where is the rage of the oppressor?

14“Bowed, he hastens to be loosened, that he should not die in the pit, and that his bread should not fail.

15“But I am יהוה your Elohim, stirring up the sea, and its waves roar. יהוה of hosts is His Name.

16“And I have put My Words in your mouth, and with the shadow of My hand I have covered you, to plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth, and to say to Tsiyon, ‘You are My people.’ ”

17Awake, awake yourself! Rise up, O Yerushalayim, you who have drunk at the hand of יהוה the cup of His wrath. You have drunk the dregs of the cup of reeling, and drained it out.

18Of all the sons she bore, she has none to guide her. And of all the sons she has brought up, none takes her by the hand.

19Both these are coming upon you – who is sorry for you?: Ruin and destruction, scarcity of food and sword. How shall I comfort you?

20Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, like a gazelle in a net. They are filled with the wrath of יהוה, the rebuke of your Elohim.

21Therefore please hear this, you afflicted and drunk, but not with wine.

22Thus said your Master, יהוה and your Elohim, who pleads the cause of His people, “See, I shall take out of your hand the cup of reeling, the dregs of the cup of My wrath – never again shall you drink it.

23“And I shall put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your being, ‘Bow down, and we pass over you.’ And you made your back like the ground, and as the street, to walk over.”